Op ed by MAP Director Chris Gunness in the UK Independent

The people of Myanmar have demonstrated their unshakable belief that there can be no place in Burma’s political dispensation for an army that commits genocide, burns down towns, forces hundreds of thousands of its own citizens across international borders, gang rapes women, forces them to watch as their babies are thrown into the flames of their burning houses, uses civilians as human shields, forcibly conscripts young people and uses them as cannon-fodder against their own communities: the list or war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the junta goes on. Five years of revolutionary struggle have demonstrated that though the junta can massacre whole communities, it will never extinguish a people’s thirst for freedom, justice and dignity. Burma right now is unsustainable by any standards. The army is not interested in transition. It is waging a war of annihilation. Time then for a radical rethink, one that acknowledges, respects and nurtures the legitimate aspirations of the Burmese people.